Common Genetic Disorders - Essay Example

"Common Genetic Disorders" is a wonderful example of a paper on neurology. Alzheimer's is a common genetic disorder that mostly affects old people, and its common symptoms are a gradual loss of memory, language breakdowns, mood swings, and confusion. This disease leads to irrecoverable memory deterioration and eventually death, and is believed that 36 million of the world’s populations suffer from the disease. The cause of the disease is not well known, however, Scientists believe that it is caused by excess production of Abeta that is a small protein fragment. There is no treatment or cure for Alzheimer’s, but the only remedies available are drug treatments that slow down the progression of brain degeneration and improve the symptoms of the disease. The experts insist on eating a balanced diet, mental stimulation, and exercises as ways to manage the disease (American Health Assistance Foundation 2011).

Alzheimer's is also a genetic disease, as scientists have found a link between Alzheimer’s, and chromosomes numbers, 1, 14, 19, and 21, and studies have shown that a person inherits one gene from each parent. Late-onset of the disease is considered to be linked to chromosome 19 on the APOE gene, and the early onset of the disease is normally linked to one gene on chromosome 21, which is present in few families (Pollen, 1993). The larger population of families associated with the early onset of the disease is linked to genes on chromosomes 1 and 19. This genetic abnormality is believed to cause the genetic transmission of Alzheimer’s disease from parents to their children and makes it to be considered a genetic disease. However, this should not be confused to regard or mean that Alzheimer’s is a complete genetic disease (American Health Assistance Foundation 2011).

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